Gravelly Guy: Excavations at Stanton Harcourt

Excavations conducted between 1981 and 1986 in advance of gravel extraction in Gravelly Guy field, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, revealed archaeological evidence spanning from the Neolithic through to the Saxon period. Neolithic and early Bronze Age activity is represented by pit scatters and a series of ring ditches with associated burials. The Iron Age and early Roman periods witnessed the continuous development of a linear settlement, consisting of a dense area of pits, gullies, circular structures, four-posters and boundary ditches in the mid to late Iron Age phase and a series of rectilinear enclosures and unusual ‘ramped hollows’ and wells in the late Iron Age/early Roman period. Excavation of a section at the junction of the floodplain and the gravel terrace has also provided information regarding the changing land use and contemporary environment in the vicinity of the site. Gravelly Guy remains one of the most thoroughly excavated sites of this period in the Thames Valley. As well as the vast amount of structural evidence, the considerable quantities of artefacts and environmental information recovered, together with a series of ten radiocarbon dates, have resulted in a detailed study of the site, its position in the landscape and relationship to the contemporary archaeology of the surrounding area.